Cranky T-Rex's Blog

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Hey look Disney decided to make another animated feature, and this time they brought Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson along. I haven't seen Zootopia yet, but I didn't much care for the previous two non-Pixar Disney flicks, Big Hero 6, which was just kind of lame, and Frozen, which I have ranted at length about in various places. Suffice it to say, that movie is completely broken because they simply couldn't bear to give their stupidly catchy song to the villain character since that would've undercut the whole GIRL POWAH message they were using their movie to send.

That's why I didn't rush out to see Zootopia, and almost didn't go to see this were it not for The Rock always being entertaining and the wait time at the bowling alley being long enough to make seeing a movie a better option. So, did Moana turn out to be a bunch of eye-roll worthy feminist agitprop you should skip? Check out the full review to find out:

Monday, November 14, 2016

Every year we get one artsy, weird, and largely original scifi flick that everyone says is just the best thing ever put to film. This year it's called Arrival. Ostensibly it's just another alien invasion movie, this time featuring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner trying to decipher the aliens' language before they destroy us, we destroy ourselves, or something equally terrible happens.

However, this movie is not quite what it seems. It was tough to review a movie like that without giving away spoilers, but I did it for you anyway. Take a listen:

Sunday, November 13, 2016

The following is a guest post by my good friend Jett Atwood. You may know her as Sarjex, the creator of the awesome cartoons attached to many of my posts. Like many she has some thoughts about this election and its aftermath. Here they are, presented without comment or modification:

First, I was not thrilled at the thought of a President Hillary Clinton. I was equally not thrilled with the thought of President Donald Trump. This election was like being forced into a dumpster fire and told I had to eat either a poop sandwich or a vomit salad...and by the way, I was still going to be trapped in the dumpster.

With that said, this country against all odds mounted and survived a revolution against the world's only superpower winning our freedom to enact the world’s greatest civic experiment: Can people govern themselves?

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Right about now most of America is trying to figure out what just happened because against all odds, Donald Trump is going to be the next President. While I didn't think he'd win in the end, I don't wonder why or how he did, nor do I need to join the myriad of people trying to explain it. I already did that way back in August of 2015 both here on my blog and over at HotAir.

It's been a long couple years in that regard. I've spent an inordinate amount of time arguing with people who are wrong on the Internet. I spent even more time trying to convince people of the importance of things like #GamerGate, which we now just watched play itself out all over again in the form of a national election. (Unsurprisingly, most of the people who seemed to really get what was happening with Trump are the same people who followed the happenings of #GamerGate.)

And as much as I would love to just spend a whole post gloating, I think the real question worth talking about is, what can we learn from this going forward? So here are the things I learned from #GamerGate and our Trumpening:

Monday, November 7, 2016

Take one relatively unknown Marvel character, add some trippy visuals, sprinkle in some Benedict Cumberbatch, and stir it up with actual magic instead of the usual pseudo science and you get the latest entry in the Marvel movie juggernaut called Doctor Strange.

Everyone thought Guardians of the Galaxy might just be the bridge too far for Marvel's comic book movie universe what with a talking tree and raccoon in it, but it was still a smash hit. Then they gave us Ant-Man, which just straight up sounds ridiculous, and even that movie was a fun ride that raked in box office cash. Now they've taken a turn for the outright mystical with Doctor Strange and the only real question is: has Marvel finally jumped the shark? Or have they hit another one out of the park? Here's what I thought:

Monday, October 24, 2016

You all wanted a sequel to Tom Cruise's first Jack Reacher movie, right? No? Well too bad you got one anyway. It's called Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and surprisingly enough, the trailers made it seem like it could be a pretty awesome movie.

Unfortunately we all know a cool trailer does not automatically make for a good movie, which is what you have me for. Was this a movie worth seeing, or would it have been better if Jack Reacher never went there in the first place? Check out my review:

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

A few years ago a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico called Deepwater Horizon blew up, killing 11 people and dumping tons of oil into the Gulf. Now they decided to make a movie about that, starring Mark Wahlberg of all people.

I went into Deepwater Horizon thinking it was probably going to be pretty terrible. Was my skepticism justified? Well, you'll have to listen to the review to find out.